Love and Marriage

Chapter Twenty-One

Leslie watched Samantha with interest as she helped Martin into the room and then doted on him, helping him sit down and then checking to make sure he was ok. Then she sat down on the couch, but not in her usual spot. She wasn't clinging to the side of the couch like she normally did. This time she was sitting closer to the middle of the couch, only a few inches away from Martin. This was an interesting development. "So Martin, how are you feeling?"

"I've definitely been better." He answered with a small smile. "But I've been worse too."

"Well it could have been much worse. I'm just glad that you were only shot in the leg." Leslie replied.

"I'm glad about that too." Sam echoed quietly.

Leslie heard Samantha's statement and wondered just what had happened to them since she last spoke to Samantha. Had they actually taken her advice for once and starting opening up the lines of communication? She really hoped so, but with these two it was never safe to assume anything. "Now when Samantha came in for her individual session, she mentioned that you two were fighting with each other a lot and that it had gotten very ugly. Are you still fighting?"

Sam gave Leslie a smile. "Actually, right now we're in a strange cease-fire period."

"Strange cease-fire period?" Leslie repeated.

"Yeah." Martin nodded. "We haven't really fought with each other in a couple of days and we're trying to avoid fighting."

"You forgot to tell her that we've also been trying to talk more." Sam looked over at Martin and reminded him nicely.

"Oh yeah, thanks." He smiled, letting his gaze linger on her before turning to face Leslie. "We're trying to talk more."

"I see." Leslie nodded, watching them carefully. They were completely different people and for a moment she wondered if the real Martin and Samantha had been abducted by aliens and replaced with pod people. Of course that was an extreme reaction, but it would make sense. The people sitting in front of her had undergone an extensive change in a very short period of time.

They weren't fighting. They were sitting closer together on the couch. They were being polite and helping each other out. They were giving each other smiles and sharing looks. While she was ecstatic for them if they really were making progress with their problems, she couldn't help but wonder what spurred this on. Was it Martin's shooting? Did that draw them closer together? They said they had been talking. What did they talk about? Had they talked about their problems? Had they come up with any solutions or come to any conclusions? Or were they glossing over their problems and hoping that they would work themselves out? She couldn't be sure right now, but was determined to find out.

"So what have you been talking about?" Leslie asked.

"Well, we haven't been talking about too many things." Sam answered.

"Ok." Leslie nodded.

"But I think we've established that we're both dedicated to making this marriage work." Sam glanced over at Martin. "Right?"

"Yes." He nodded. "We did establish that."

"Well that's definitely a step in the right direction." Leslie made a few notes. "Have you talked about anything else? Any of your problems?"

"No, not really." Sam shook her head.

"To be honest, we're not sure what to start talking about first." Martin added.

"That sounds normal." Leslie nodded. That was understandable for them to not know what to start with. They had a lot of issues to work through. After thinking about it for a moment, she had an idea. "Are you open to a suggestion?"

"Absolutely." Sam smiled, grateful for any help from Leslie.

"Well, your communication skills definitely need work. Perhaps you need an easy subject to practice on before tackling the heavier issues." She smiled. "Think of it as a form of training wheels. My suggestion is that you start talking about the incident surrounding the night that Claire spent the night away and you two were intimate. There seems to be a lot of confusion and conflict surrounding that night and I think it would be good for the two of you to express your feelings about it."

Martin and Sam shared a look of mutual panic as Leslie brought up their night of drunken sex. Neither of them wanted to talk about it even though they knew that it would be a good idea. Maybe it could alleviate some of the awkwardness they still felt around each other and help them rebuild.

"Share what you think and feel about it." Leslie continued, noting the look of panic on their faces. She could tell that they didn't want to talk about it, but of course they never wanted to talk about anything. So why should this be any different? But if they were really dedicated to making their marriage work they would get past their personal attitudes and work on communicating more. "If you can talk about that night with total honesty and without fighting, I think then we should try to talk through some of the other problems. Do you think you two can handle that?"

Martin stole another quick glance at Sam before looking at Leslie again. "I think we can at least try."

"Yeah." Sam agreed. "I think we can try."

"Good." Leslie smiled. She couldn't help but wonder if they were actually going to talk about it or not. She'd been giving them a lot of assignments lately and they seemed to fail every single one of them. Hopefully that was about to change because their stubbornness could cost them their marriage.